INTRODUCTION: As we look around us, we see nations and cultures in disarray. There are so many things going wrong, that is would be quite easy to despair. Where to start? What battles should we fight, and what should we let alone? This is itself quite an important issue, as Martin Luther once wisely noted. …
Loudly Being Orthodox at All the Irrelevant Places
I have sometimes spoken with Christians who have said something like “we really ought to emphasize the love of God,” and we should not focus on the negative “by pointing out heresy.” All that is necessary is to declare the truth. Why engage with error? Why give it the time of day? The problem with …
Sexual Sin and Sexual Rebellion
I just finished a fantastic read by Peter Jones. Entitled The God of Sex, the subtitle explains his theme further — “How Spirituality Defines Your Sexuality.” Really good stuff and highly recommended. I believe that Canon Press will be offering it sometime soon. And this leads to some additional observations on this general subject. I …
X-Ray Glasses and Women’s Dresses
What the world of high theology needs, not to mention the world of high philosophy, and the closely related world of high jinks, is a horse doctor dose of pastoral cynicism. Let me illustrate. If you were to give x-ray spectacles to one thousand thirteen-year-old boys, we should assume that all of them would use …
Why Sexual Issues Are To Be Front and Center
Our culture’s wholesale abandonment of biblical ethics in matters of sexuality — what I have recently called pomosexuality — is the direct and immediate result of a failure of the Church to proclaim and live out life in Christ, life in the gospel, life in the triune God. So the way out of this impasse …
The Homo Lobby and Hatred Inflation
A bit more on the topic of the previous post. I certainly believe that it is possible for Christians, standing for a biblical understanding of sexuality, to sin against homosexuals by means of verbal violence. Expressions of malice, pettiness, personal hostility, and so forth are prohibited in Scripture. “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, …
The Homo Thing
I have recently been reading The God of Sex by Peter Jones, and have been very impressed by it. Jones very ably shows, as his subtitle declares, “How Spirituality Defines Your Sexuality.” Homosex — not to mention all the other laundry list perversions that gender studies departments like to catalog for us — is a …
The Ironic Fairy of History
Oliver O’Donovan has just released a book that provides a classic illustration of why the moderate and progressive segments of the Anglican communion in the UK, Canada, and the US are all sick unto death. At the same time, he has done good work before this — in The Desire of Nations, for example. And …
Pomosexuality
Boundaries are an essential element in any art, but it does not follow from this that if the boundaries are honored and respected, the great art will necessarily follow. A lot of pedestrian poetry has been written within the confines of the traditional forms. Sexual boundaries follow the same kind of pattern. The one true …
Homo Pomo in Slowmo
As I look at the state of public discourse today, and the Church’s contribution to it, I often feel like somebody stuffed me into a Walker Percy novel, and then somebody else screwed the lid on. It is as though everybody has agreed to do a cute little two step, closer and closer to the …